Eating vegan, running long distances and being 20-something.

4/25/18: Hardcore Relaxation In Nong Khiaw

I went for a run at 6:30. It was really picturesque, but also quite challenging. I was running in rolling hills the entire time. A bunch of kids on bicycles were riding to school, and all of them said hi and waved to me as they passed me. It was so adorable.

Beautiful Nong KhiawKids cycling to school

I got breakfast at Delilah’s, a hostel/restaurant 5 minutes from our bungalows. Adrian and Tim joined me a few minutes after I got there.

I got muesli with soy milk and fruit. It came with peanuts on top, which was quite annoying as I had to pick each one out. They didn’t seem concerned at all when I told them I was allergic.

I blogged until 11 or so, and then went back to the hotel to see what Adrian and Tim were up to. They told me that if we wanted to do the 100 Waterfalls today, we’d have to leave right now. We decided to just wait until the other two, Mateus and Falko, arrived in Nong Khiaw so we could all do it together.

We instead went to the guesthouse’s restaurant to get some food. While we were looking at the menu, Mateus and Falko walked up to the reception. They had just arrived from Luang Prabang. We all talked for a bit, ordered food, and ate lunch together.

My yellow curry

We all laid out in our hammocks for a while, being lazy.

The path to our bungalowsOur balconies

At around 3 we all went down to the river, cans of beer in hand, to swim. However, the spot we chose was right by a little drain and we were scared that it was a sewage drain. None of us wanted to swim in that area anymore, so we finished our beers and went back to chilling in hammocks. We relaxed hardcore, watching the sunset and just talking with each other.

So niceThe view

I’ve taken the time to sit and watch so many sunsets on this trip. I do it almost every day or every other day. It’s something you never do in everyday life back home, so I really find 5:30-6:30 a precious hour when I sit down, gaze out at the sky, and wait for the sun to go down.

We went to get food around 7. We really wanted to go to Coco Home, but it was closed again.

We instead sat down at Phulisack, which had the most ridiculously large menu ever. Some of the items were repeated twice, but had different prices. It was all very confusing. We got beers to start since we knew we’d be going through the menu for a while.

Eventually, when we got to ordering, the waitress told us that they couldn’t make almost everything we wanted because they didn’t have the ingredients. They didn’t have bamboo for the bamboo shoot soup, bread for the sandwiches, or chicken for chicken curry. We decided to just go to a different restaurant, and ordered spring rolls to hold us over until we finished our beers.

Once we were done with the rolls and beers, we walked next door to Q Bar, which was definitely the right choice. Our waiter (named Wan, or it could be Juan or One, I’m not quite sure) was super friendly and helpful. I got some sort of or lam, a type of Lao stew. The boys ordered cocktails after they finished their food food, but I didn’t order anything because it was expensive and I was already pretty tipsy from the beer.

However, Wan ended up making a whiskey sour for me for free because he felt bad that I was the only girl in a group of 4 guys, which I thought was funny and cute. I ended up giving most of it to the boys anyway, though— it was too strong.

We closed the bar. It was around midnight when we finally got going. I went to bed while the others stayed up a bit longer and drank more beer.